Since the lifting of public health emergency status last July due to COVID-19, the Department of Health (DOH) declared COVID-19 vaccines are no longer covered under DOH budget spending for 2024.r
In a press briefing, DOH secretary Teodoro Herbosa reasoned that there is already a high number of Filipinos who are already immuned against COVID-19.
According to the health secretary, at least 74 million Filipinos have been vaccinated with COVID-19 primary doses and boosters while there are 5 million Filipinos infected through natural immunity.
According to the DOH COVID-19 tracker, there has been a gradual uptick in the positivity rate of COVID-19 cases since July this year. Meanwhile, DOH secretary Herbosa said the public need not worry about the “minimal” rise in COVID-19 cases as recent variants of interest are just like the common cold or flu.
“What I will emphasize to the public is that vaccine is not the solution. We learned that the solution is minimum public health standards, and managing your own personal risks,” Herbosa said.
“During the pandemic, the government tried to protect everyone. Blanket. Now it’s back to individual-based risk management,” he added.
This remark drew the ire among netizens saying that DOH secretary Herbosa basically gives an impression of “bahala na kayo riyan” or “you’re on your own”.
The statement did not sit well with the public, noting the whopping P5.768 trillion budget proposal for next year which is at least 9.5% higher than the 2023 budget.
The National Union of Students of the Philippines National Capital Region (NUSP-NCR) also recalled the militaristic efforts the government under the former Duterte administration committed at the height of the pandemic.
In Marcos Jr.’s 2nd State of the Nation Address, he pledged “structural changes” to the health system. However, the health department was slashed by P2 billion, with a 4.8% decrease in appropriations for the DOH Office of the Secretary.
The overall health sector for the 2024 budget is only 5.6%, which raises concerns among the public about its capacity to address public health needs.
Thinktank group IBON Foundation has slammed the government’s budget mispriorities since PhilHealth gets a 1.7% or at least P101.5 billion proposed budget for 2024.
Some netizens also recalled Marcos’ ill-gotten wealth amounting to P203 billion as well as his office’s confidential and intelligence fund budget at P4 billion and the Maharlika Investment Fund with a P500 billion start-up budget to be rechanneled on basic social services.
Netizens also remembered the reports of millions of COVID-19 vaccines that have been wasted.
Last November, Sen. Pia Cayetano, the sponsor for DOH budget, said the country’s COVID-19 vaccines that were “expired or nearly beyond shelf life” reached nearly 50 million.
Meanwhile, the Philippines will be receiving a million doses of new COVID-19 monovalent vaccines starting in tranches of 500,000. The said vaccine specifically targets the Omicron XBB subvariant.
DOH said monovalent vaccines work better against Omicron as compared to bivalent vaccines.
As of December 15, there are 4,128,961 total cases of COVID-19, 4,334 of which are active cases and 446 recently added. 4,057,832 have also been recovered with 66,795 reported deaths due to the virus.
